The Sunday night the Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Kadarius Toney’s offensive offside has sparked a firestorm of controversy over the rule and its application.
The flag cost the Chiefs and fans (eventually) of one of the best plays of the season and a possible Chiefs win over the Buffalo Bills – Patrick Mahomes threw to Travis Kelce who them threw to Toney for a go-head touchdown with 70 seconds left.
“It’s tough to swallow,” Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes told ESPN. “Not only from me, and football in general, to take away greatness like that, for a guy like Travis to make a play like that, you want to see the guys on the field decide the game. They’re human. They make mistakes. But every week, we’re talking about something.
“It’s the call. Just in that moment. Not for myself. To have a flag change the outcome of the game. I’ve never had offensive offsides called.”
Last year, offensive offside was called just twice (Jalen Tolbert of the Dallas Cowboys and Chris Olave of the New Orleans Saints), however this year it’s been a applied more rigorously.
Entering week 14, it’s already been called 10 times with Jon Runyan getting called twice for it in the same game (1Q and 2Q vs the Jaguars):
2023 NFL PLAYERS TO GET AN OFFENSIVE OFFSIDE PENALTY (through Week 13)
Week 4: L. Dickerson (PHI)
Week 6: E. Wilkinson (ARI)
Week 7: O. Torrence (BUF) – RB
Week 7: D. Lewis (SEA)
Week 8: I. Seumalo (PIT)
Week 9: J. Runyan (GB)
Week 9: J. Runyan (GB)
Week 9: C. Whitehair (CHI)
Week 10: R. Shaheed (NO) – WR
Week 12: D. Peoples-Jones (DET) – WR
On that list, of the nine players flagged, six were lineman, two were wide receivers and one running back.
Only Whitehair (3Q) and Shaheed (4Q) were flagged for the violation in the second half. The rest were all first half penalties.